Apple Pie Trail Mix
Sugar-crusted nuts, dried apple, and cereal. Baked low at home, eaten by the handful on trail.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 2 oz
- cal / oz
- 165
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Day hike
- Car camping
- Bikepacking
- Thru-hike
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Walnut or pecan halves | 1 lb | |
|---|---|---|
| Egg white | 1 | |
| Water | 1 tbsp | |
| Granulated sugar | 1 cup | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1 tsp | |
| Dried apple rings | 2 cups | quartered |
| Golden Grahams cereal | 3 cups |
Method
- At home, whip the egg white with the tablespoon of water until it goes foamy and loses its slick look.
- Stir the sugar, salt, and cinnamon into the foam, then fold in the nuts until every piece is coated.
- Spread the nuts on a sprayed sheet pan in one layer. Bake at 200F for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes so the coating dries instead of pooling.
- Pull them when the coating is dry to the touch and the nuts smell toasted. Cool completely on the pan.
- Once cold, toss with the cereal and apple pieces and seal it up. On trail, open bag, eat by the handful.
The egg white is glue, not an ingredient you taste. It foams up, grabs the sugar and cinnamon, and dries onto the nuts in the low oven into a thin shell. That shell is why this keeps: the coating seals the nut oil away from air, so the mix stays fresh for weeks instead of going rancid the way bare walnuts do in a hot pack.
Two hundred degrees for an hour is dehydrating, not baking. Go hotter and the sugar melts and slides off, and you end up with a sheet of candy and naked nuts. Stir it every quarter hour and you get even coverage. Cereal and apple go in only after everything is stone cold, because warm nuts throw off enough steam to soften both.
Packing
The oven step is the whole point of the recipe, so this gets made days before you leave. Store the finished mix in an airtight jar at home and portion into 2 oz snack bags the night before. Any moisture that gets in will turn the sugar shell tacky and glue the cereal to the nuts.
Variations
- Swap the apple for dried apricot, banana chips, or sweetened cranberries.
- Cut the sugar by a third if you find the coating too much; the egg white still holds the cinnamon on.
- Add a cup of raisins after baking for a cheaper, heavier mix.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/apple-pie-trail-mix